Bulls @ Magic 6pm CT Nov. 27th 2024

[Stratmaster]

Looking at the box score and wondering why LaVine has 10 assists (which is good) but only taken 7 shots?

It's because Billy scripts the game plan, and other teams have it figured out.

First 5 minutes Zach is a decoy in the corner. The plan is to get everyone else shots. Guard him with 1 man.

Next 4 minutes it is time for Zach to shoot. Keep 2 defenders around him. Credit to Zach, he made great passes out of that situation.

Then Zach sits for 6 minutes. Now it's really Zach time. Send double teams.

Rinse and repeat q1 in q3.

I have never seen another head coach neuter his best scorer as effectively as Billy has.

On the flip side, Wagner came out shooting

[jordanwilliams6]

I hate how Phillips doesn’t play in garbage time. I don’t want to see Duarte running around when Phillips needs as many minutes as possible.

[DuckIII]

I'm an old word geek English Major and it bums me out that we've lost this word to the masses, but in this case - this current Bulls squad is literally the worst defense I've ever seen for this team. Ever. Donovan needs to get shredded in the national media at some point.

I thought I was reading my own thoughts spilled out on paper until the last sentence. What is BD really supposed to do to improve this defense? Play Ayo, Zo, Pat, Matas and Smith 48 mpg? Terry off the bench?

The team has virtually no defenders. Show me a team that has this few players that you can say with a straight face are plus defenders and, in Matas’s case, the attributes to quickly become a plus defender. Washington? If that?

I don’t blame BD. I pity him. It’s like trying to build a cathedral with a box of pencils and a bottle of Elmer’s. Hell, I pity the players for crying out loud. Normally when I see a bad defensive team I am all over the players due to effort and crappy attitudes. Not this year. These guys are not physically capable of coming together in defensively effective 5-man units.

[2weekswithpay]

Ironically Zach's on-off numbers this season are the best of his career.

[ImSlower]

I'm an old word geek English Major and it bums me out that we've lost this word to the masses, but in this case - this current Bulls squad is literally the worst defense I've ever seen for this team. Ever. Donovan needs to get shredded in the national media at some point.

I thought I was reading my own thoughts spilled out on paper until the last sentence. What is BD really supposed to do to improve this defense? Play Ayo, Zo, Pat, Matas and Smith 48 mpg? Terry off the bench?

The team has virtually no defenders. Show me a team that has this few players that you can say with a straight face are plus defenders and, in Matas’s case, the attributes to quickly become a plus defender. Washington? If that?

I don’t blame BD. I pity him. It’s like trying to build a cathedral with a box of pencils and a bottle of Elmer’s. Hell, I pity the players for crying out loud. Normally when I see a bad defensive team I am all over the players due to effort and crappy attitudes. Not this year. These guys are not physically capable of coming together in defensively effective 5-man units.

Very true, I suppose. None of these guys seem to want to play defense no matter what their coach tells them. Just such a frustrating experience to try to watch these days; and I have put in more time this season than ones past, hoping to see young development.

[Stratmaster]

I'm an old word geek English Major and it bums me out that we've lost this word to the masses, but in this case - this current Bulls squad is literally the worst defense I've ever seen for this team. Ever. Donovan needs to get shredded in the national media at some point.

I thought I was reading my own thoughts spilled out on paper until the last sentence. What is BD really supposed to do to improve this defense? Play Ayo, Zo, Pat, Matas and Smith 48 mpg? Terry off the bench?

The team has virtually no defenders. Show me a team that has this few players that you can say with a straight face are plus defenders and, in Matas’s case, the attributes to quickly become a plus defender. Washington? If that?

I don’t blame BD. I pity him. It’s like trying to build a cathedral with a box of pencils and a bottle of Elmer’s. Hell, I pity the players for crying out loud. Normally when I see a bad defensive team I am all over the players due to effort and crappy attitudes. Not this year. These guys are not physically capable of coming together in defensively effective 5-man units.

Very true, I suppose. None of these guys seem to want to play defense no matter what their coach tells them. Just such a frustrating experience to try to watch these days; and I have put in more time this season than ones past, hoping to see young development.

I can't even blame Donovan for the defense tonight. With Smith out he has absolutely no size and no way to play interior defense. In fact, the lack of interior size probably makes the already defensively weak guards and wings look even worse. Of course, I expect he had some say in the roster.

[Future Coach]

For the 4th year in a row, it's so hard to figure out who the bad and good players are on this team.

Is Coby fool's gold? Or is he playing with the worst defensive frontline in the NBA by a mile?

Is Zach empty calories, or is he in the same situation? But also never paired with a competent playmaker, besides for Lonzo's super-man stints for 15 mpg.

Is Vuc actually an OK center, or is he surrounded by a bunch of midgets?

Go down the list, and you can't make any definitive conclusions. Again we've got an undersized starting line-up that the coach stubbornly plays for most the game with a whopping -20 (if not worse) net rating.

I can easily see each of these guys, even Giddey, seeing a change of scenery and role, and just instantly making us feel salty when we get back some Duarte and lotto-protected-for-6-years pick.

I don't think it is that difficult...

Ayo has the hustle and potential of quick (though limited) impact that he can be a good back up pg in this league. If he wants more money than that role, trade him.

Matas is still in the evaluation stage, and I would be willing to give him a chance to be further evaluated on the Bulls, but if someone makes a legit offer of real value he shouldn't be holding up any deals.

Coby is on a decent contract, but ideally would be best as the 3rd/4th option in a lineup, and/or a scorer off the bench. He should likely be traded before his contract is up unless he is good with a similar contract.

Zach is skilled, but absolutely should not be the opposition's #1 defensive focus. He needs to be next to a legit #1 option (like Giannis, Jokic, etc). If not, the team will struggle against decent teams, and he will become disengaged, and at that point he is hopeless on defense (maybe offense too). Considering it's hard to reconstruct this team without trading him, he should likely be traded, but not for trash with no purpose.

Vuc is skilled offensively, but overall is not good enough to be a starting center on a decent team in this league. He should be moved ASAP for the best offer available.

Going down the rest of the list even that specifically is honestly not worthwhile. All of them should be moved for as much value as possible, including the coach. And as much as it sucks to say, the Bulls need to focus on keeping their upcoming picks, as they're undeniably closer to winning the lottery than winning a playoff series.

[NZB2323]

For the 4th year in a row, it's so hard to figure out who the bad and good players are on this team.

Is Coby fool's gold? Or is he playing with the worst defensive frontline in the NBA by a mile?

Is Zach empty calories, or is he in the same situation? But also never paired with a competent playmaker, besides for Lonzo's super-man stints for 15 mpg.

Is Vuc actually an OK center, or is he surrounded by a bunch of midgets?

Go down the list, and you can't make any definitive conclusions. Again we've got an undersized starting line-up that the coach stubbornly plays for most the game with a whopping -20 (if not worse) net rating.

I can easily see each of these guys, even Giddey, seeing a change of scenery and role, and just instantly making us feel salty when we get back some Duarte and lotto-protected-for-6-years pick.

I don't think it is that difficult...

Ayo has the hustle and potential of quick (though limited) impact that he can be a good back up pg in this league. If he wants more money than that role, trade him.

Matas is still in the evaluation stage, and I would be willing to give him a chance to be further evaluated on the Bulls, but if someone makes a legit offer of real value he shouldn't be holding up any deals.

Coby is on a decent contract, but ideally would be best as the 3rd/4th option in a lineup, and/or a scorer off the bench. He should likely be traded before his contract is up unless he is good with a similar contract.

Zach is skilled, but absolutely should not be the opposition's #1 defensive focus. He needs to be next to a legit #1 option (like Giannis, Jokic, etc). If not, the team will struggle against decent teams, and he will become disengaged, and at that point he is hopeless on defense (maybe offense too). Considering it's hard to reconstruct this team without trading him, he should likely be traded, but not for trash with no purpose.

Vuc is skilled offensively, but overall is not good enough to be a starting center on a decent team in this league. He should be moved ASAP for the best offer available.

Going down the rest of the list even that specifically is honestly not worthwhile. All of them should be moved for as much value as possible, including the coach. And as much as it sucks to say, the Bulls need to focus on keeping their upcoming picks, as they're undeniably closer to winning the lottery than winning a playoff series.

The issue is none of them have that much trade value, and it’s harder to make trades in the new CBA. The Bulls have been trying to trade Lavine and Vooch.

[PaKii94]

Ironically Zach's on-off numbers this season are the best of his career.

For the most part the bad shots are gone, he's playing within the game now, and he is not asked to be clutch playmaker (... For the most part).

Exactly what we need from him to up his value

[Ccwatercraft]

I'm not sure PG is the best position for Coby. We had a 3 on 1 fastbreak with 2 guys ahead of the defender and we couldn't get a good shot out of it.

He's clearly a talented scorer but he's chaotic.

Maybe he grew up playing soccer, didn't want to get an offsides call

Also, same darn thing happened in the wizards. Same result

[burlydee]

Terry didn't bring nothing for significant minutes so far

I mean I'm not going to really argue this but he only played 2 minutes and he's been playing his best ball of career recently. I don't think THT and Liddell make sense. THT just takes shots from better players and Liddell literally only fouled when he was on the floor. Not sure why tonight was time to mix up rotation, especially since you're already getting Ball back.

No, Terry's ceiling is a useful role bench player and nothing more,not sure why should we care about his minutes.Just another bad draft pick by AK.

Bc he's the only guy other than P Will playing defense. If you came here to root for stars, you came to the wrong place. It'd be great if we could not give up career nights to two defensive guards.

[burlydee]

I thought Matas is looking better and better. That was probably only good sign. Very good first step, good cutter, not afraid of contact. A long way to go but some encouraging stuff.

[Red8911]

I'm an old word geek English Major and it bums me out that we've lost this word to the masses, but in this case - this current Bulls squad is literally the worst defense I've ever seen for this team. Ever. Donovan needs to get shredded in the national media at some point.

I thought I was reading my own thoughts spilled out on paper until the last sentence. What is BD really supposed to do to improve this defense? Play Ayo, Zo, Pat, Matas and Smith 48 mpg? Terry off the bench?

The team has virtually no defenders. Show me a team that has this few players that you can say with a straight face are plus defenders and, in Matas’s case, the attributes to quickly become a plus defender. Washington? If that?

I don’t blame BD. I pity him. It’s like trying to build a cathedral with a box of pencils and a bottle of Elmer’s. Hell, I pity the players for crying out loud. Normally when I see a bad defensive team I am all over the players due to effort and crappy attitudes. Not this year. These guys are not physically capable of coming together in defensively effective 5-man units.

Other than Vuc and Zach everyone else on the roster is more than capable of playing defense.

I get that the players are the ones messing up all the time but Billy and the coaching staff have to take some responsibility for this mess on defense.

Maybe the style of play on offense which requires fast pace running affects the defense, maybe the players can’t use as much energy on that side.

Then there’s times where Billy puts the wrong lineup in especially going small and teams take advantage. Billy focuses on offense that’s why he often likes to go small.

I’m sure another coach like Thibs for example would have them playing at least respectable defense. What we are watching now is absolutely ridiculous, there’s zero defense and everyone is to blame players/coaches.

[Red8911]

I'm not sure PG is the best position for Coby. We had a 3 on 1 fastbreak with 2 guys ahead of the defender and we couldn't get a good shot out of it.

He's clearly a talented scorer but he's chaotic.

Maybe he grew up playing soccer, didn't want to get an offsides call

Also, same darn thing happened in the wizards. Same result

lol probably. Yeah Coby does do that often but let’s not forget that he’s encouraged by Billy to take 3s even on fast breaks. If the coach had a problem with that he would have made him stop taking those shots.

[pipfan]

This was a loss, no matter what. Playing a hot, rested team, back-to-back on the road-no way we would win. Plus, Orl was red hot to start

No big deal here. We're 8-12, on pace to win 33. This is EXACTLY where most of us thought we'd be, and the worst spot possible. Let's pray Vuc and Lavine stay healthy and we can trade them (and Coby please) and keep our pick

[kodo]

Looking at the box score and wondering why LaVine has 10 assists (which is good) but only taken 7 shots?

Orlando treated him as the #1 threat and didn't really care about anyone else. He got doubled team at the half court line.
And their strategy worked. Only Ayo & Giddey were really able to punish Orlando's pressure on Lavine.
KCP isn't even defending Coby that tight.



Definitely in a weird situation where Lavine is the priority #1 to get off the team, while opposing coaches see him as our star player.

[CROBulls]

We were never winning against Magic. They are team which knows how to tear down Vucevic build team and build through draft.

[DuckIII]

Definitely in a weird situation where Lavine is the priority #1 to get off the team, while opposing coaches see him as our star player.

I’ve been watching the NBA regularly since 1986, and I’ve seen this situation probably dozens of times. It’s not that unusual. It happened on our own team with a different player just 5 months ago. The far more unusual thing is how long our FO waited to do it.

[DorO]

This 30-35 win rate is terrible to look for future. Matas could come something, much more promising than I imagined.

[MrSparkle]

Definitely in a weird situation where Lavine is the priority #1 to get off the team, while opposing coaches see him as our star player.

I’ve been watching the NBA regularly since 1986, and I’ve seen this situation probably dozens of times. It’s not that unusual. It happened on our own team with a different player just 5 months ago. The far more unusual thing is how long our FO waited to do it.

Demar, Niko, Jimmy, Deng… Lauri in a way, as it was apparent they weren’t going to pay so many big men…

The Bulls love selling low (or desperately building value in a dead-end/will-trade scenario) on its best talent.